Lijiang: Is it real?

Lijiang is becoming one of China's most favored tourist sites, but it wasn't always so. Tourism has boomed since the city was placed on UNESCO's World Heritage List in 1997. Quite the dramatic turnaround for the city, considering it was seriously damaged in a 1996 earthquake (and 309 of its county citizens killed).

But I really wonder how much of the old part of the city is real and how much has been reconstructed. Searching the internet, I found articles (here, here and here) that discuss the damage. Many reports and tour guides indicate that the older structures in the historic part of town withstood the earthquake quite well, while more modern construction suffered more damage. But looking at these articles it is obvious that damage was widespread, old and new, and a map (Figure 8 in this article) shows a significant number of deaths in the old part of town.

So how much has been rebuilt into the tourist draw that it is today? I saw sections at the periphery of the "old town" that were being constructed to look old. I also noticed that the canals running through the old town had large drains in their beds, like western manhole covers. Lijiang is called the "Little Venice of the Orient", but I'll bet Venice doesn't have drains in its canals. That to me points to a rather unnatural, yet very aesthetically pleasing, canal system, but also raises the question of authenticity. Certainly still worth a visit though!